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The skilful physician PDF

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The S kilful P hysician The S kilful Physician Edited b y Carey Balaban, PhD and Jonathon Brien, PhD University o f Pittsbu1lJ'b Pennsylvania and Richard Siderits, MD O CRC Press C~ Taylor & Francis Group Boca Raton London New Y ork CRC Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa b usiness CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group 6000 Broken Sound Park\\'ay N\X', Suite 300 Boca Raton, 1'1. THH7-2742 " 119<)9<)77 by Taylor & Francis Ciroup, I.I.C CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Ciroup, an Informa business No claim to original U.S. Ciovernment works This book contains infl)l'(l1ation obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reason­ able effl)rts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility flll' the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know so we may rectify in any future reprint. Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright I.all', no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, noll' known or hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers. For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access II'II'\\'. copyright.com (http://\\·\\'\\'.copyright.coml) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, ,\1 A OllJn, lJ7H-7S0-H400. CCC is a not-for-profit organiza­ tion that provides licenses and registration flll' a variety of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Visit the Taylor & Francis \\feb site at http://www.taylorandfrancis.com and the eRC Press Web site at http://www.crcpress.com CONTENTS Preface . .. . . . . . .. . .. . . . . .. . . . .. . .. . . . . . . . . .. .. .. . . . .. . . . . vii Introduction ........................................ ·. . . . . . . ix THE SKILFUL PHYSICIAN ..................•.......... ·..... 1 Glossary .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Table o f Medicinal Ingredients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . . . . . . . . . 233 Index ............................................. 277 PREFACE The importance o f natural foods, minerals and h erbs in preventive medicine and healing is a venerable theme in the h istory of medicine. Since the fifteenth century, natural healing has been f eatured in a g enre o f printed s elf-help m edical texts combining principles f or p reventive medicine and recipes for natural remedies. The Skilful P hysician, originally published in 1656, is a collection o f guidelines for maintaining one's h ealth plus r ecipes for d isease r emedies, perfumes a nd t reated w ines. Similar t o t he contents o f the seminal 1618 Phtlrmacopaia Londinensis, these recipes use only n atural ingredients: herbs, minerals a nd p arts o f animals. However, u nlike the Phtlrmacopaia Londinensis, which· was published b y t he College o f Physicians for a p rofessional a udience, The Skilful P hysician was targeted a t t he general public. The b ook begins with the premise t hat preservation o f good health requires attention to p roper d iet a nd life-style. However, recognizing that preventive measures are not p erfect. the compiler i ncluded r ecipes for 705 compound m edicines to treat a w ide variety of illnesses. Instructions for choosing wines, a s w ell as 58 recipes to p reserve, " recover a nd r estore" wines are included. Fmally, 15 formulas for perfumes a re presented. This volume is representative o f popular m edical texts from the mid-seventeenth century, a g enre that includes t he well-known Culpeper's Complete Herbal, written by Nicholas C ulpeper a nd published i nitially in 1 652. Unlike Culpeper's c ompendium, which has been reprinted e xtensively, The Skilful Physician has never b een r eprinted. This new edition makes a f ascinating work a vailable t o m odem scholars and t he public. ln a ddition to the original t ext. we have prepared a n introduction d iscussing The Skilful P hysician within the context o f seventeenth-century English medical theories and practices by both p rofessional a nd l ay healers, a t able of natural i ngredients a nd a n index. Since many medical t enns a re unfamiliar t o the modem reader, we have also compiled a g lossary of key medical terminology found in the text, with definitions derived f rom contemporaneous sources. It is hoped t hat t his book will serve as a r esource for u nderstanding the preparation of s eventeenth-century n atural remedies and e ncourage further scholarship i n this important p eriod i n the history of medicine and phannacy. viii PREFACE The e ditors wish to thank ldelia W olfe and M argaret Moran for their clerical assistance with this project T he illustrations were reproduced from a c opy of t he 1633 edition of John Gerard's Tht Herbal or G eneral History o f Plants i n the collection o f The H unt Institute for Botanical Documentation. The e ditors thank Charlotte T ancin, librarian and s enior research scholar, Hunt Institute, for making this material available for our use. We a ppreciate the helpful comments of Norman Gcvitz, John Scarborough and Charlotte Tancin on a n earlier version of the manuscript We are also grateful to R uth Kuenzig for providing the original text. This work is dedicated to the memory of her father Dr. David Eckstein­ physician a nd h umanitarian. INTRODUCTION Medicine a nd health c are in seventeenth-century England d id n ot c onfonn to a s imple, strict h ierarchical model. Just a s English s ociety was undergoing a s eries of significant r eligious, political and economic changes, o rganized medicine during this century also w as facing severe challenges to its continuing adherence to Galenic medical dogma 1 Besides the e merging threats to t raditional medical authority posed b y the growth of Paracelsian chemical b eliefs2 and a new philosophy e ncouraging medical e xperimentation s upported b y the Royal Society o f London, 3 outside the urban bastion o f London a w ide variety of healers usurped part or all of the university-trained physicians' prestige and economic rewards. The S kilful P hysician, published a t the midpoint o f t he century, illustrates many of the major threads running through the complex pattern o f seventeenth-century E nglish medicine. Within seventeenth-century L ondon organized m edicine was divided among three groups holding royal c harters: physicians (College of Physicians o f London created in 1518), b arber-surgeons ( Barber-surgeon's Company c reated i n 1540) and a pothecaries (Society of Apothecaries created i n 1617).4 The u niversity-trained p hysicians s ought u nsuccessfully to m onopolize the p ractice o f physic. Attacks from within their o wn ranks by s upporters o f Paracelsian and Baconian philosophies severely limited their s tatus in the public mind.' A l arge group o f alternative healers, ranging from non-licensed physicians to quacks, siphoned off m any of the traditional doctors' potential paying patients. Most medical care in London was provided b y d omestic healers within a h ousehold s etting. The p icture o f medical delivery o utside o f metropolitan London is much more confusing. Ronald Sawyer, in his noteworthy dissertation, discusses eight g roups of popular h ealers practicing in rural England d uring this century: clergy~octors, magical healers, medical assistants a nd itinerants, bone-setters, itinerants r oaming between villages, midwives, gentlewomen and d omestic healers. 6 This varied assortment o f popular healers competed a gainst a nd, at t imes, worked with the very few university-trained physicians who ventured fonh from urban centers such as London, Bath and Norwich.7 Selection o f an appropriate healer was

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